View source for Today, ILGA World joins more than 200 organizations in adopting the Feminist Declaration

Twenty five years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the foundational global document on gender equality, governments at an abbreviated session of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) have reaffirmed a commitment to gender equality but, according to leading feminist groups and activists, fell short of committing to the transformative steps necessary to achieve this vision.<br>
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To address the gaps in the political declaration adopted at the CSW by governments, the Women's Rights Caucus - a global coalition of more than 200 feminist organizations, networks and collectives that advocates for gender equality at the United Nations - has published an alternative, feminist declaration. The Feminist Declaration outlines a bold and urgent agenda for gender equality and the human rights of all women and girls, and centers the critical role of civil society organizations advocating for accountability in policy and programs meant to promote, protect, and fulfill human rights for all. [...]<br>
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[From the declaration:]<br>
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14. Respect the rights of all individuals to exercise autonomy over their lives, including their sexualities, identities and bodies, desires and pleasures free from all types of discrimination, coercion and violence, and fully realize sexual and reproductive rights, and ensure bodily autonomy, integrity and sovereignty, by taking the following actions:<br>
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a. Eliminate all laws and policies that punish or criminalize same-sex intimacy, gender affirmation, abortion, HIV transmission non-disclosure and exposure, or that limit the exercise of bodily autonomy, including laws limiting legal capacity of adolescents, people with disabilities or other groups to provide consent to sex or sexual and reproductive health services or laws authorizing non-consensual abortion, sterilization, or contraceptive use; [...]<br>
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g. End the criminalization and stigmatization of adolescents' sexuality, and ensure and promote a positive approach to young people's and adolescents' sexuality that enables, recognizes, and respects their agency to make informed and independent decisions on matters concerning their bodily autonomy, pleasure and fundamental freedoms;<br>
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<i>source: Article 'Today, ILGA World joins more than 200 organizations in adopting the Feminist Declaration, an alternative to the political declaration that outlines the steps necessary to achieve gender equality'; Declaration: 'Feminist declaration on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women' (This document is drafted by the Women's Rights Caucus: a global coalition of over 200 organizations working to advance women's human rights internationally, regionally, nationally and locally); tmp/mozilla_marthijn0/Beijing-25-Feminist-declaration.pdf; ilga.org/CSW64-Womens-Rights-Caucus-feminist-declaration-Beijing25; ILGA; 9 March 2020</i>

[[Category:ILGA]]
[[Category:Human rights]]
[[Category:Mensenrechten]]
[[Category:United Nations]]